I love Thanksgiving — my favorite holiday of the year. Partly it’s because I usually don’t have any services to play, and I can concentrate on decorating, cooking and enjoying food and the company of my friends. Every year I try to do something a little different, and this year I bought several new items for my Thanksgiving table: the quilted runner and the amber crystal water glasses.

Our “Day of Feasting” for Thanksgiving and in fact, all the holidays, all came about my husband Carl and I attended a lecture by the Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith, at an Association of Anglican Musicians conference in Seattle in 1992.

From Wikipedia: Smith was born in Tacoma, Washington, on January 22, 1939. He graduated from the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in 1962. In 1965, he graduated from Drew University in New Jersey, which ordained him a minister in the United Methodist Church. In 1965, he became a chaplain at the University of Puget Sound. In 1966, Smith married his wife Patricia “Patty” Smith, and had two sons, Channing and Jason. Patricia is credited with originating the nickname “Frugal Gourmet”. Jeff Smith served as a chaplain at UPS from 1966 to 1972. In 1972, he left the university to open and run Chaplain’s Pantry Restaurant and Gourmet Shop, a deli and kitchen supply store in Tacoma, where Smith and his students also offered cooking classes to the public.

Here’s what I wrote two years ago:

What I remember from his address was that he proclaimed, “We have forgotten how to feast!” He characterized American Thanksgivings as eaten in a hurry, and not savored, then held up an aluminum TV dinner tray as the most lamentable object in the room. I believe he then launched into a discussion of how feasting began, and how a meal could progress over several hours instead of gobbled up in twenty minutes.

Ever since 1992, our holiday meals have been a progression of courses, accompanied by interesting conversation and washing the dishes in between. Yesterday we started at 2 pm and by the time all the guests had left, it was almost 9 pm! It had taken us almost seven hours to eat this feast! (Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of my fresh green bean casserole and the mashed potatoes, but you can see how much food we served!)

Someone asked me whether I was going to play the organ yesterday. Yes, I did, for our table grace — I played an introduction by Charles Callahan and then an alternative harmonization by Keith Kolander to “Come, You Thankful People Come” (ST. GEORGE’S WINDSOR), one of my favorite Thanksgiving hymns. Our little “choir” of seven people bravely sang around the table.

Thank goodness, everyone pitched in to clean up the kitchen and of course, there were lots of leftovers for everyone to take home.

And probably, my favorite morning after breakfast is to eat pumpkin pie! However I can’t get too complacent, because tonight we have choir rehearsal, rescheduled from yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!